Gower's 'Tale of Three Questions' and 'The Clever Peasant Girl' Folktale.

Review

In an earlier article (see JGN 21:5), Bratcher pointed out the similarity between Gower's tale of "The Three Questions" (CA 1.3067-3402) and the ballad of "King John and the Bishop" (Child, no. 45). For Gower's use of a young girl instead of a shepherd (as in the ballad) and for a closer analogue to the "dust-to-dust" theme of Gower's first riddle, Bratcher now cites Aarne-Thompson type 875, "The Clever Peasant Girl," particularly as reflected in a version collected near Hanover in the early nineteenth century. In a private correspondence, Bratcher points out that the reference to type 988 in his first footnote should instead be to type 922. [PN. Copyright The John Gower Society. JGN 26.1]